Richardson, Texas - acadami and Xplor Canada are pleased to announce the first Electronic Document Associates in Canada. The graduates attended the Document Systems Life Cycle course, thus completing the trio of acadami education courses: Document Production Fundamentals, Document Systems Life Cycle, and Document Production Best Practices. By successfully completing these courses and spending at least two years in the document industry, Robert Foulds and Lorraine Janelle (both of Canada Post Corporation) immediately became eligible for the new EDA designation.

All courses by acadami that are certified by Xplor International require attendees to pass a written examination as well as meet the attendance requirement in order to qualify for Xplor Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

The newly-announced EDA designation by Xplor is intended for specialists who have completed significant "foundation" training on electronic documents (five days of Xplor Continuing Education certified training or the equivalent) and have been engaged with electronic document related work for at least two years. acadami's week-long program of professional training provides the 50 education units necessary to earn the EDA designation. This program provides both a broad foundation of training for the industry professional as well as a substantial short cut to the first level of industry certification.

Paul Abdool edp, Xplor International Chairman of the Board and Xplor Canada member, says, "I would like to personally congratulate our EDAs for taking their first step towards the very respected designation of EDP.  Continuing education ensures that we can continue to lead the industry into the future of document production and handling."

"In a study commissioned by EDSF and conducted by Infotrends, it was found that there were significant shortfalls in the skill sets of employees, particularly in the areas relevant to variable data printing and transpromo. acadami addresses this problem by offering first-class, vendor-neutral education to industry professionals in the transaction document space, and by supporting Xplor professional designation programs," said William J. 'Bill' McCalpin, acadami's registrar and co-founder.

"The EDP Commission of Xplor International has recently developed an additional recognition level, the Electronic Document Associate (EDA), to recognize the thousands of specialists who have the foundation but are not yet ready for full professional certification," says Bill Broddy, former vice-chair of the EDP Commission and acadami provost. "We are delighted to lay that foundation for the benefit of both employers and employees, through acadami's ongoing professional education."